Help- Betta Keeps Eating Shrimp

[NearMeBettas]

Just got shrimp 2 days ago, betta has already eaten 4 of the 16. There are a few hides and some moss balls but the betta is still going in the hides. Did separate but have no room for 2 tanks. Any suggestions on some kind of better hide for the shrimp so the betta cant keep eating? Thanks.

FYI these are neocaridina shrimp, variety of colors so orange, red, blue, brown....

 

[Essjay]

I'm afraid there's not really anything you can do, bettas are incredibly efficient at squeezing into tiny spaces, as I found when I tried to keep frogs with one and made all sorts of supposedly betta-proof hides for the frog's food. Mine could get in to reach the frog's food then couldn't get out again.

I've had a few bettas, one at a time. One was so laid back I tried shrimps with him. He ignored them, even the babies. By the time he died there was quite a sizeable shrimp colony. I got another betta and put him in with the shrimps. This one ignored the adults but ate the babies - the colony no longer grew. Fast forward to when the second betta died and I got number 3. A day or two after he was put in with the shrimps I found bits of shrimp everywhere. He didn't eat them, just dismembered them.

You have a betta which does not want any other creature in his space. He's better being kept totally alone, no shrimps.

 

[MaloK]

You can get small cholla wood and make a stack with them and use cable ties to make sure of a certain integrity, fill them with plants. Buy shrimps hideout and cover them with plants. Use slate to create hideouts too small for a betta all over the place.

Luxuriously plant the tank until the fish has difficulty wondering around and can't see more than 3 inch far.

In last resort... Cut his tail to slow him down.

You can bring the fish out of the fighting ring. Just can get the ring out the fish.

 

[Colin_T]

You can try feeding the Betta more often but short of separating them, he will continue to hunt and eat them.

 

[MaloK]

He didn't eat them, just dismembered them.

At some point the fishes will stop eating shells when possible, they are made of 99% chitin and is not digestible for nearly anything.

Once they understand that, they kill and rip the shrimps apart eat the tail muscle and leave all the rest to rot.

At this point, It's live food, and if the betta starts to bloat. You need to interveine.

 

[Essjay]

As soon as I spotted those shrimp body parts I rescued the survivors and they went in my main tank with the rest of the shrimps. The betta didn't get chance to gorge himself for long, thank goodness.

 

[Naughts]

Did separate but have no room for 2 tanks

Neither a betta nor neocardinia need big tanks. If you really haven't room for two (not even one on top of the other?), rehome the betta or the shrimp.
As is, the shrimp may somehow hide successfully but they will be stressed and unable to live freely.